Failbender
by Demonic Circus Girl
Summary: Sakura is Avatar Aang's and Master Katara's third child, and the only one who can't bend. She is not happy with this. Watch as Sakura tries to find her identity in a world where it is so often chosen for you. FutureFic, Canon Ships.
1. In Which Sakura's Brother Waterbends

**A/N: I enjoy reading about the Gaang's children and seeing what other writers come up with. So I decided to write my own story focusing around them. Reviews are always appreciated, especially if it concerns my writing and or character development.**

**Do not own Avatar. **

Sakura wanted desperately to be a bender. At age fourteen, she still showed no signs of any type of bending whatsoever. Her father was the Avatar, for goodness sake! She should be able to bend _something_. It was for this reason that Sakura was desperately trying to concentrate on the cup of water that sat on the table before her.

She had tried for years to be an airbender, trying to summon winds like her two older siblings, Tenzin and Hariti. Bending came so naturally to them, it seemed. But not to her. Recently she had dared to gain new hope when her younger brother, Kalden, who had just turned eleven, discovered his waterbending only a few hours ago when they were down playing at the beach.

The sun was setting over Ember Island, the star just kissing the ocean's surface. Sakura had been assisting her younger siblings, Kalden, Dechen, and Anil, in building a sandcastle. Their mother and Aunt Suki were relaxing in the sun, watching their children play. The children had been nearly finished with the sandcastle, when Dechen declared, "It needs a moat!"

Anil nodded enthusiastically, but being only five and not having an extensive vocabulary, he asked, "What's a moat?"

"It's a barrier of water that surrounds the castle," Sakura explained.

"It needs a moat!" Anil exclaimed, repeating Dechen's words.

"I'll get the water," Kalden said, then, like he had seen his mother do many times before, he tried to form a water bubble out of the seawater.

Dechen, who had already displayed her airbending talents at an early age, scoffed, "Give it up, Kalden. You try all the time and you can never do it."

Kalden didn't heed his sister's words and continued to put effort into his attempt. Slowly, a bubble began to rise out of the ocean. Kalden shouted, "I did it!" But as he yelled his focus was lost and the bubble plopped back into the water.

Sakura could hear their mother squeal with glee, and watched as Kalden ran into her arms.

"Mom! Mom! Did you see? You saw what I did, right?"

"I did!" she said, beaming brightly, "That was really good, especially for your first try!"

"I'm going to go tell everyone!" he shouted, and ran inside Zuko and Mai's large Ember Island vacation house, which their family shared with Uncle Sokka and Aunt Suki's family, as well as Toph's and Ty Lee's.

Dechin and Anil continued working on their sandcastle, fetching the water for the moat themselves in a small pail. Sakura walked towards her mother and Suki.

"This is so great!" her mother gushed to Suki, "I mean, I'm really happy that most of our children have been airbenders because I know the world needs them but I've always wanted to be able to teach one of them to waterbend."

Suki smiled back, "That's really great Katara, I bet everyone will be really excited too, especially Aang."

"I don't know, I feel almost guilty about Kalden not being an airbender, you know? It almost feels like I'm taking something away from the world…away from Aang."

"Don't be silly," Suki reassured her, "The world needs waterbenders too, especially those skilled in the southern tradition. Besides," she said, winking, "we all know Aang _loves_ waterbenders."

Her mother blushed slightly, "I guess you're right, but still…"

As her mother's eyes drifted away from Suki, she finally realized that Sakura was standing nearby. "Done making castles, Sakura?"

Sakura nodded, and started to walk past them

Her mother must have noticed the disappointed look on her face, because she asked Suki to watch Dechin and Anil and ran to catch up with her daughter.

"Sakura?" she said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Are you alright?"

Sakura turned to her mother and nodded, the smile not reaching her eyes.

Her mother apparently wasn't fooled and asked, "Would you like to talk about what's bothering you?"

"No," Sakura responded, "It's just that…Mother, why can't I bend?"

Her mother frowned, but waited for her daughter to continue.

"I mean, everyone else can bend!"

"Now, you know that isn't true, Sakura. Most people can't bend, after all."

"You know what I mean," Sakura said, "The whole family can bend. You're a waterbender, dad's the Avatar, Tenzin, Hariti, and Dechen can all airbend and I bet Anil will be able to one day too. Now Kalden can waterbend! I've tried to airbend for the longest time but it has never worked! I can't bend! Where does that leave me?"

"It leaves you as Sakura," her mother said, smiling and pulling her in for a hug.

Sakura let her mother comfort her, returning her hug.

She pulled away, looking into her daughter's grey eyes, "Bending doesn't make your life any better or worse. It doesn't make _you_ any better or worse."

Sakura mentally disagreed.

"I know you've tried airbending a lot, but you haven't tried any of the other elements. Your father is the avatar, so who knows? You could even be a firebender," her mother said.

Sakura snorted, "Yeah right. I'm fourteen, if I haven't been able to bend anything by now, I don't think I ever will."

"Like I said, you haven't tried. Give it a shot if you want to. But there is really nothing wrong with not being able to bend. Just ask Sokka, Suki, Ty Lee, or Mai. Look how much they can do, and they've never bent at all. If you wanted, I'm sure you could ask them for lessons. I'm sure Suki would love another Kyoshi warrior! Ty Lee could teach you acrobatics and chi blocking. Or Sokka can teach you how to fight with swords, or Mai how to throw knives. I bet Zuko would even teach you dual swords. You don't even have to choose a fighting skill if you don't want to…"

"Alright mom, I get it," Sakura said, slightly annoyed.

"I'm just trying to say that there are many other skills besides bending."

Not to Sakura there wasn't.

And this was why she was staring into a cup of water instead of eating her dinner.


	2. The World is Your Sea Prune

**A/N: Special thanks to Distant-Moon, whose review motivated me to post another chapter. If you like, have suggestions or concerns, you can hit the review button and tell me. :)**

**Avatar no es mia.**

**Chapter Two**

Sakura still hadn't touched any of her food, a fact which her cousin Hina, who was seated next to her at the dinner table, took notice of. She poked Sakura in the shoulder, "Hey, are you alright? You've been staring into space this whole time!"

Sakura looked up at Hina and gave her a faint smile, "I'm just not very hungry."

Hina seemed appeased by this answer as she directed her concentration to redoing her double braid style in which she liked to keep her mahogany hair. She was still wearing her green and blue swim-dress that she had been earlier that day when she and Sakura went swimming.

Further down the table Sakura could hear Kalden still excitedly bragging about his newfound ability. Their father, who was sitting between his son and his wife said, "That means you'll have to start training, probably tomorrow."

"I can't wait; it will be so much fun!"

Fire Lord Zuko, who sat at the head of the opposite end of the table, said in a warning voice, "Training is more than just fun and playing around, it takes hard work to harness your abilities."

"Zuko is right," Katara told her son, "But don't worry, it'll be really fun too!"

Sakura groaned. Everyone had been going on about Kalden's waterbending for hours and she was already tired of hearing about it.

"Okay, now I know something's wrong," Hina said, flipping her braids over her shoulders, "Spill."

"I'll tell you later."

"No, you'll tell me now," Hina declared, grabbing hold of Sakura's arm as she stood up and dragging her into another room. "Alright, what's up?"

"Everyone keeps talking about Kalden's waterbending."

"Yeah - so?" Hina asked, not recognizing the problem.

"So, now that Kalden can bend, I'm the only one in my family who can't!"

"Anil can bend?" Hina asked, a confused look on her face.

"Not yet, but I know he'll be able to."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do, okay?"

"You're just trying to make everything sound worse than it is."

"That's because everything is bad! I can't bend, I feel so useless!" Sakura yelled as she waved her arms before sitting on the staircase behind her.

"Gee, thanks Sakura," Hina responded sarcastically, "I didn't realize us non-benders were so useless. I'm really glad you told me."

"I didn't mean it like that. It's different for you, your parents aren't benders, and neither is your sister."

"So?" Hina said, crossing her arms.

"So, it's not expected of you. Who would have thought that any child of two benders, one of which is the Avatar, couldn't bend?"

"I don't know," Hina said, "I don't think it always works like that though, that it's always something you get straight from your parents. I know people who can bend and neither of their parents or their grandparents could. Maybe it's just, I don't know, a thing?"

"A thing?" Sakura asked, not quite understanding what her cousin was trying to say.

"Yeah, you know. A thing!" Hina clarified, "It's just something you can do or something you can't. Simple as that. I wouldn't worry too much about it, just do something else."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, anything! The world is your sea prune, eat it however you want to."

"I don't like sea prunes," Sakura complained, resting her chin in her hands.

"Well sea prunes are what you got so you better eat them unless you want to starve!"

Sometimes her cousin really didn't make any sense.

"Speaking of eating," Hina continued, "I'm hungry, let's go back to dinner?"

"I thought you already ate?" Sakura said, standing up.

"Only one helping, I'm still hungry."

Later that night, after everyone else had gone to bed, Sakura tried to bend again, only this time she decided to try the elements that she hadn't tried before. She sat at the empty kitchen with a small pile of sand, a candle, and a new cup of water before her. After spending an hour trying to replicate the moves that she had seen her mother do and failed to create so much as a ripple, she pushed the cup aside and turned her attention to the pile of sand. She had seen Toph earthbend before, so she tried to remember how she did it.

Eventually she gave up on that as well and turned to the candle. She let her hand hover close to the flame, willing it to jump into her palm. Next she tried, stupidly, to stick her hand in the fire in an attempt to catch hold of it. She yelped when she felt the heat and jerked her hand away. The pain subsided quickly so she decided to try again, this time placing both of her hands at the side of the candle and pulling them upward in an attempt to make the fire grow. To her surprise the candle's flame quickly grew three times in size and illuminated the whole room. Sakura smiled widely. She had actually done it!

Or that's what she had thought anyway, until Ruka, Fire Lord Zuko's eldest daughter, spoke from behind her, "Why are you sitting here in the dark?"

Sakura was startled and leapt from her seat, spinning around to face the girl. Ruka was three years older than she was. She was very tall and slender and looked every bit like Fire nation royalty. Her long coal black hair, which was usually done in a top knot adorned with a gold pin encrusted with a sapphire, was currently hanging loose to her waist. Her sleeping robes looked like they were made from the finest silks the fire nation had to offer. She looked at Sakura, her bright golden eyes questioning.

"I was just—" Sakura began, "Wait, did you make the candle flare up?"

"Yes, it just seemed rather dark in here. I was getting a late night snack," Ruka explained.

"Oh," Sakura said. So she hadn't bent the fire at all.

Ruka picked up an ash banana that was sitting on the counter and began to peel it, "So you never answered my question. What were you doing?"

"Nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing," she said, gesturing to the items Sakura had on the table, "Why is their dirt on the table? I hope you were planning on cleaning that up."

"I was," Sakura said, "I was just trying to bend."

"Dirt?"

"Yeah, I can't waterbend like my mother or airbend like my father. But since he's the avatar I thought that maybe I could bend one of the other elements."

"But you can't?"

Sakura looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap, "No, I can't."

Ruka shrugged, "It's not that big of a deal."

"Why does everyone keep on saying that?" Sakura asked, throwing her hands up.

"Well, maybe it's because it isn't."

"Well, maybe it is to me," Sakura snapped as she stood from the table.

"I suppose that's you're prerogative then. It's your choice whether to dwell on the fact or accept it and move on."

"That's easy for you to say, you can bend! What if you couldn't? How would you feel then?"

"If I couldn't bend? In this hypothetical situation where I cannot bend has my bending been taken away from me or was I born without it?"

"I don't know, does it matter?" Sakura asked.

"I believe it does," Ruka explained, "for example, if my bending were to be taken away from me right now I would be very upset."

"Because?" Sakura prompted.

"Because bending is a part of who I am."

"See? Now you know what I mean," Sakura said.

"I disagree, I think it's hardly the same thing. The inherit ability to bend is part of who I am, not part of who you are. If I were, like you, my mother, or my younger brother, born without bending I would simply learn other skills. Even with my firebending I chose to learn other skills. For example, my mother taught all of us knife throwing."

"She did?"

"Well, I should say she tried to teach all of us. Ichiro was never very good at it and whined to mother so much about how he disliked it that she eventually let him quit."

Ruka deposited the ash banana peel in the trash, "As I said before, it's up to you whether or not you will let it effect your life." With that last comment she exited the room.

As much as Sakura hated to admit it, Ruka was right. Her mother was right. Hina was right; when life gives you sea prunes, you better make sea prune stew.


End file.
